Influencers

EE Timeshas chosen 13 people who are influencing the course of semiconductor development technology and taking it into realms that exceed the bounds set by the inventors of the transistor more than 50 years ago. As a result, semiconductors will morph with other disciplines, and electronics will be part and parcel of the human body as well as man's moving spirit.EE Times has chosen 13 people who are influencing the course of semiconductor development technology and taking it into realms that exceed the bounds set by the inventors of the transistor more than 50 years ago. As a result, semiconductors will morph with other disciplines, and electronics will be part and parcel of the human body as well as man's moving spirit.

Paolo Gargini,Director of Technology Strategy, Intel Corp., Chairman of the ITRS Roadmap CommitteeWith more than 25 years in the industry, Gargini is helping to navigate tough process and manufacturing waters. He is known for studying electromigration and failure mechanisms of advanced MOS structures in process reliability. In 1985, he headed the first submicron process development team at Intel.
Highest degrees: PhD, EE and PhD, physics, University of Bologna

Ken McElvain,CTO, SynplicityHaving left Mentor Graphics to create Synplicity, McElvain is considered a genius in FPGA synthesis. Before creating his company's flagship product, he cut his teeth at Mentor as the principal designer of the AutoLogic synthesis tool. Pre-Mentor, McElvain worked on HDL synthesis and static timing verification, among other things, at Hewlett-Packard.
Highest degrees: BA, mathematics, and BS, computer science, Washington State University

Bernie Meyerson,Chief Technology Officer at IBM Microelectronics
The father of silicon germanium, Meyerson stumbled on the idea for the technology after dropping a piece of silicon on the floor. This erstwhile cabinet maker did groundbreaking research in low-temperature epitaxial growth. For 40 years, he upheld a traidition of dining with his grandmother once a week. Meyerson was a 1998 finalist for U.S. inventor of the year.
Highest degree: PhD, physics, New York City College

Phaedon Avouris,Manager of Nanoscale Science at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Poised to revolutionize semiconductors as they shrink to the nanoscal level, he sits in the catbird seat. Avouris headed researchers at IBM that benchmarked the world's first carbon-nanotube transistor (using a nanotube as the channel of a conventional silicon transistor) as outperforming silicon transistors. Recently, he led the team that benchmarked the world's first light-emitting nanotube for integrating optics onto silicon chips.
Highest degree: PhD, physics, Michigan State University

Chris Rowen,CEO, Tensilica
Great blood lines: The professorial Rowen was a pioneer in RISC architecture under John Hennessy at Stanford University. Rowen helped found MIPS Computer Systems in 1984 and was vice president for microprocessor development. Before founding Tensilica in 1997, he was vice president of the Design Reuse Group of Synopsys. Rowen is a passionate evangelist for his approach to processor design.
Highest degree: PhD, computer science

Joe Sawicki,Vice President and General Manager, Design-to-Silicon Division, Mentor Graphics
Sawicki leveraged eight years as an integrated circuits designer to land in one of the hottest areas in electronics design today: DFx (design for yield, manufacturing, profitability, etc.). Quick-witted, he's a savvy up-and-comer in a perfect spot, as design pulls in the back end.
Highest degree: MBA, Northeastern University

Raminderpal Singh,Senior Engineering Manager, IBM Microelectronics and the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance
He is published in the area of substrate and process modeling and is a guru on modeling the electrical noise in an advanced process. At VSIA, Singh headed the development leading to the world's first specifications document describing signal integrity issues for the import of analog and digital IP. He's young and ambitious.
Highest degree: PhD, engineering, Newcastle University (U.K.)

Nav Sooch,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Silicon Labs
Once called the Tiger Woods of the semiconductor industry, the 40-year-old Sooch has created innovative mixed-signal technology that breaks the historical barriers of CMOS process technology. His early inventions include the design of the delta-sigma A/D and D/A converter and the first PRML read channel in CMOS. He cofounded Silicon Laboratories.
Highest degree: MSEE, Stanford University

Fred Weber,Chief Technologist, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Computation Products Group
He helped to develop the AMD K6 processor and was the co-lead of the AMD Athlon. Weber has deep roots in complex processor architectures, having worked in architectural and engineering positions at NexGen, Encore Computer and Kendall Square Research. Degrees of separation: Counts Gordon Bell among his mentors.
Highest degree: BA, physics, Harvard University

Anantha Chandrakasan,Professor in the EECS Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
With a research focus on energy-efficient implementation of wireless integrated systems, Chandrakasan works in digital ICs and systems. Projects include: AMPS, a distributed microsensor networks for monitoring and controlling various applications; design of ultrawideband (UWB) transceivers integrated as RF communication systems in CMOS. Will chair Technology Directions activities at the 2004 ISSCC.

Trudy Stetzler,Senior Member of Technical Staff, Digital Radio Group, DSP Products Division, Texas Instruments
Responsible for system-level analysis of digital audio broadcast (DAB) solutions. Prior to TI, she was with Bell Labs. Stetzler is technical program chair at the 2003 CICC.
Highest degrees: MSEE from the University of California; MBA, Wharton School (U. of Pennsylvania)

Yervant Zorian,Vice President and Chief Scientist at Virage Logic
Founded and currently chairs the IEEE P1500 standardization working group for embedded core test, and has authored over 200 papers and three books. Since 1996, Zorian has been chief technical adviser of LogicVision. He is the vice president of the IEEE Computer Society for Technical Activities and is the editor in chief emeritus of IEEE Design & Test of Computers. He is an honorary doctor of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
Highest degrees: MSc, University of Southern California, PhD, McGill University

Salvo Coffa,Director of Research of the Silicon Optoelectronics and post-Silicon Technologies group, STMicroelectronics
He pioneered work on silicon-based optoelectronics and is one of the world's leading experts in the field. Coffa developed innovative experiments for exploring the mechanisms of formation and annealing of ion-implantation defects in crystalline and amorphous silicon.
Highest degree: PhD, physics, University of Catania (Italy)